Field of the Disclosure
This disclosure relates to personal devices for the enjoyment of audio entertainment, and specifically relates to autonomous headphone devices that internally incorporate a music player, storage, application and embedded processors and multiple communication interfaces which do not depend on a separate music player to play music or to connect to online media and which are configured to enable accessibility to and enjoyment of audio entertainment from multiple sources, both resident and non-resident to the headphone system
Background of Related Art
There has been rapid growth in the market for high quality surround and sound media, including music, movies, TV and games in both the home and the mobile market. In particular the market for mobile music devices and peripherals, including headphones, has grown especially fast in the past ten years since the advent of mobile digital music players, such as the Apple iPod, combined with the advent of online digital music stores, such as Apple's iTunes.
There are approximately 500 million people worldwide who listen to mobile music using a pair of headphones and a separate music player, such as an iPhone or an iPod. Many people would prefer a simpler, faster and higher quality method of listening to music that may be stored or may be streamed from an online music service without depending on a separate music player. Many people would prefer not to be dependent on or encumbered by a separate music player which may require cumbersome cables, setting up the devices and “pairing” wireless communications. The need to carry a separate bulky player that may deplete the separate smartphone's battery more rapidly and require additional battery management is an additional problem.
With the advent of simple “streaming” of online music radio services, such as Pandora, many people would prefer to simply press a button and instantly listen to a streaming music station without having to connect a cable or pair to a Bluetooth wireless connection, unlock a smartphone, launch an application, select the station and then finally begin to listen to music.
While there has been and continues to be great demand for higher quality multi-channel or surround audio used in Blu-ray movies, there is no headphone being offered in the market that supports Blu-ray movies, video games and TV shows with discrete HDMI compatible 7.1 channel surround HD Audio. In addition the use of surround HD Audio in music has been largely overlooked, in large part, because of the commercial success of mobile stereo music players and online two-channel standard quality stereo music stores. Consequently, in spite of the dramatic improvement in the audio quality offered by multiple channel HD audio surround music, there has been little or no development of any HD audio surround music players or online music stores which offer HD audio surround music.
The general market for all forms of headphones continues to grow rapidly with particularly high growth in the high retail priced “premium” headphones sector. It is estimated that global headphone sales have grown at an annual rate of approximately 20% a year, to approximately $8 billion, in spite of an overall reduction in consumer electronics sales since 2008. It is estimated that U.S. sales of premium stereo headphones ($100+) grew by 25% in units in the first quarter, accounting for 95 percent of the revenue growth for the total U.S. headphone market. A large share of the market growth in headphone sales is currently in mobile two-channel stereo-only music applications which require the use of a separate music player or smartphone.
Currently, there are no means for listening to high definition music that is stored on the headphones, nor is there currently a method for streaming music from an online music service such as Pandora without using a separate smartphone or music player. As a result of these limitations, existing headphone devices either require the use of a cumbersome music player or smartphone, along with either an unwieldy interface cable or an unreliable and complicated wireless interface that requires manual configuration to be able to use conventional headphone devices. Further, additional separate external devices are required to support high definition audio such as 96 kHz/24 bit rates, high wattage amplification, surround sound or other special effects, including spatial virtualization.
Existing headphone devices, without the use of a separate device, cannot autonomously process two-channel audio, such as music, for example, and cannot convert the two-channel sound into virtual surround sound in real time, and then drive the surround sound via more than two speakers. For example, it is not possible using an existing headphone device to watch and listen to a 7.1 channel HD Blu-ray movie with its original master studio quality 7.1 channels of HD Audio format via a set of discrete 7.1 channel speakers. Existing headphone devices are limited in their media compatibility, media source player interface capability, the number of speakers, their lack of an integrated HD audio surround sound media player, and are limited in the audio quality they deliver since they are dependent on the quality of the external separate music player's Digital to Analog Converter (DAC), audio amplifier quality and the quality of service provided by the communication interface they use. No existing headphone device offers the ability to stream or transfer music and other media files over WIFI communication interface and, thus, conventional devices are relegated to use an inferior communication interface which, in comparison to WIFI, is limited in available bandwidth and can experience data loss and latencies, which results in poor, transmitted audio quality.
Existing devices are also not capable of being converted from use as on-head based headphones to off-head, desktop or shoulder based open air speakers. Existing devices also do not offer elements, such as a surface conduction vibration speaker, that deliver audio frequencies and amplitudes that allow the listener to feel the vibration of the sound being transmitted through the headphones with little or no pressure being applied to the listener's head and ears, which dramatically improves comfort and ergonomics in comparison to using low wattage dynamic speakers.